Tech start-ups are using Airbnb to cut costs and make long-term stays more palatable to younger workers, a travel exec said at ITB Berlin.
“We were convinced that there would be a benefit to adding Airbnb,” said Emilie Nas de Tourris, Senior Global Travel Manager at Criteo. “Our average employee age is 31 and stays in Airbnb for personal travel. Our sales and R&D teams are precious – we are completing for talent with the Googles of the world.”
Tourris said employees visiting the company’s San Francisco office preferred Airbnb to that city’s limited array of pricey hotels.
The company was able to change its finance processing to process up-front payments. It also appointed American Express as global payment manager, and found work arounds in Concur that would allow employees to extend work stays for leisure travel.
The company then promoted the change internally via videos.
But the biggest driver for the switch was cost.
“We had pressure from our CFO to cut travel expenses, so that pushed us to move,” Tourris said.
This is strictly an exclusive feature, reprints of this article in any shape or form without prior written approval from 4Hoteliers.com is not permitted. Michael Scaturro is reporting exclusively for 4Hoteliers.com at ITB Berlin 2019 - www.4Hoteliers.com/itb.
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